Gluon for Micro.blog

And just to follow up that rejection, the previous build of Gluon was only flagged for using the “Micro.blog” name - so they were clearly happy with my blocking integration.

Gluon was… Rejected. Reasons… for the exact same ones than the initial rejection… even though the app now includes all the blocking features they asked for. I am lost for words 😶

Quick update on the Gluon for Micro.blog app review. It went into Review Saturday evening, and it still is in the same status. Only time will tell. I’m hopeful it goes through. Will update everyone how it goes… Good or bad.

So… after receiving much feedback about the feed position jumping on Gluon when it’s updated, when you’re at a random position in the timeline, I added a tweak that will now maintain the position if new items come in.

If you’re scrolled to the top, it will however maintain at the top. If you scrolled down by one item, it will keep the position no matter what and load everything in at the top.

I hope this solves some issues/annoyances that you’re having. It’s still very much a trial to see how my default options are working; I’m sure there is room for improvement.

Should have it in TestFlight during the week.

I don’t want to add any tabs at the top to indicate an “unread” count - I’ll think of something else like a small orange arrow or something. I personally don’t like unread counts or anything like that. Life is made too busy by numbers.

Room for improvement for sure.

Just pushed out TestFlight build 14 for Gluon. It adds the February photo challenge to Discover and fixes “webcal” links. More details here about the integration. Enjoy it and happy blogging and photo taking!

Adding the "2020 February Photoblogging Challenge” for Micro.blog to the Discover screen on Gluon. Will push it out to TestFlight users shortly. Wish I could add it to Android today, but am too behind.

A “proof of concept” for future events too 😊

So last week I changed the name for “Gluon for Micro.blog” to “Gluon: social micro-blogging” just to get it past App Store review. After reading all your comments about the initial rejection and letting it sit over the weekend, I changed it back to "Gluon for Micro.blog”. The app is still “Waiting for Review” - has been like this for a few days with no movement.

I left a longer reply in the “Notes” field for the reviewer… I made my case why it’s important that it’s there and gave a few example of apps that use terms likes this: “Apollo for Reddit”, “Tweetbot 5 for Twitter” etc. I also emphasised how it would negatively impact app discovery for the community.

”Gluon for Micro.blog” is the right name for the app. It’s to the point and doesn’t mislead for whom it’s for. Using any other name without including the all important “Micro.blog” name makes Gluon completely worthless (for me). Gluon would not exist if it wasn’t for Micro.blog. Saying it was something else really doesn’t sit well with me.

I just hope they don’t go ahead and freeze my developer account over this.

Just released build 9 (2020.1) for Gluon. It adds support for post drafts that I teased last week. I’m going to write up about it tomorrow (it’s 02:00 AM here), however the release notes should give you a nice clue. Perhaps a good topic for the next episode of my podcast 😬

I may have written a reporting API for Gluon… 😬

Worked on draft support for Gluon this morning. Will be in the next TestFlight build. Will also add it to Android in the coming weeks.

Here is a preview:

Adding the preliminary blocking and reporting features to Gluon. Hope to have that out on TestFlight tomorrow. Works nicely. The mute list should handle regex too… to be confirmed though.

Regex is fun… especially when you have to deal with Wordpress emoji.

Thank you to everyone writing in about Gluon and your comments. I really appreciate it and I have a plan in place to make it hopefully go through review. It’ll take me a bit longer, but we’ll get there for sure. Hope to have a new TestFlight build out in the coming weeks.

Last Friday I put in Gluon for review to the App Store. It went into review 30 minutes later. It was pretty great.

I woke up Saturday morning with a message saying that Gluon was rejected. Fair enough… it happens. However, the points they raised were strange to me.

So making a change to the login screen, I resubmitted the update - not knowing that it will also close the open ticket in the Resolution Centre. It went back into review that evening, this time they took 3 - 4 hours to run through the tests.

Again I woke up with a rejection. With one point still being on there, and another found. So I decided to write a longer reply to them with some great examples and background information. I did not submit a new build this time around and waited for Apple to reply.

Sure enough, I got a reply yesterday saying they will call me. Today they did and I spoke to Kelley who, I’m guessing, is/was my reviewer. Nice lady for sure.

However, she only quoted the points and gave me blank responses - which is fair enough, it’s Apple. I know they’re not allowed to comment or talk out of terms, or perhaps show compassion. Which is a huge shame considering what they stand for.

So now I’m sitting here, with tears in my eyes. Cold sweat, shaking, stomach cramp. Crying.

So it is with a very heavy heart to say that Gluon will not make it to the App Store any time soon. There is no wrong doing with the app, it is more on point on what they want me to include in the app. The most unfair thing is that similar apps don’t need to do it apparently. I didn’t mention names, I’m not like that - I was more puzzled and asked questions why this is so (only to get… well… a blank response).

Here is what Apple want me to implement, because the app allows “user-generated content”:

Your app enables the display of user-generated content but does not have the proper precautions in place.

Next Steps

To resolve this issue, please revise your app to implement all of the following precautions:

- Require that users agree to terms (EULA) and these terms must make it clear that there is no tolerance for objectionable content or abusive users
- A method for filtering objectionable content
- A mechanism for users to flag objectionable content
- A mechanism for users to block abusive users
- The developer must act on objectionable content reports within 24 hours by removing the content and ejecting the user who provided the offending content

So, this means I have to build a full backend to facilitate this. And not because these features don’t exist within the Micro.blog API, but because Gluon allows the viewing and generation of this content.

Kelley said I should feedback this to my team so we can come up with a plan. I am only one person!

As you can see, this is an impossible task for me. There is a lot of things I have to incorporate including a full process and backend for doing exactly that. (outside of Micro.blog itself)

This is… insanely unfair, frustrating and heart breaking.

I started Gluon just over a year ago in the hopes to bring something really great to the Micro.blog eco-system. But now, this dream has been stopped. Crushed.

I really don’t know how I feel about it. I poured my heart and soul into Gluon… not to mention many hours/weeks/months/year of work. I created a website in anticipation of the launch. I registered a domain name for the app. I created all the content and screenshots. I did everything right.

I don’t know what the next steps are. I really don’t. I’m full of different emotions, which I’m observing. Writing this post certainly is helping to let me deal with this at the moment.

One more point they flagged up was that I used the “Micro.blog” name within my App name and/or subtitle. Apparently you’re not allowed to use trademarked names. “Tweet*** 5 for Twitter”, “Chi** for Twitter”… I can go on. So I would have to use “Gluon” - but you know… that’s naturally taken.

I get that Apple is protecting the end-user here, I really do… and I do understand. But where I’m sitting, the App Store is not a level playing field - and it’s a huge shame.

… what next you ask?

I really don’t know. I guess I’ll continue to update the TestFlight build as I go.

For Android fans… it’s available and public now in the PlayStore. You can go to the website to find out more.

Shaking a little less.

At least I learned massively from the project so far, I’ll give it that.

For you Apple nerds, I’m sorry.

Looks like I made 435 commits with this version of Gluon. If I include the first version (the one I started with) it’s just under 600 commits in total. 🤯